Importance Of IT security In online business

There is no rocket science in understanding why IT security is important for your business. Those days are gone when people use to write thousands of papers to secure their valuable data. This is the digital world, and we all are dependent on the tech devices that we carry wherever we go. This important and sensitive data can make or break your business that is why it always remain vulnerable to some extent, and there have always been different concerns about its security. There is no doubt that companies are trying their best to secure their data however there are some other forces too that are continuously trying to break your security and steal your data. That is why it is important to keep your data up to date to the modern technology to secure it against the theft.

Following are some statistics and points that will help you to understand why every business owner should keep its IT security imperative over anything else.

The similar risk for large and small businesses:

As mentioned in the report published by the cyber security department of the government in 2016, 65% of large firms detected a cyber-security breach or any kind of cyber-attack last year. 25% of the same companies also mentioned that they faced these breaches at least once a month. As a whole, these breaches cost the big firms over £3 billion and at an average, these breaches cost £36,500.

Not only the big firms, small businesses or startups has also been on the target of the cyber criminals. There are many reasons why small businesses are the targets of the cyber criminals. Usually, small businesses don’t concentrate on their IT security due to the various reasons like shortage of resources and human force. That is why they are the easy targets but not as lucrative as the big firms are for the cyber criminals. Recently accumulated figures about the cyber-security breaches on the small and medium-sized businesses have cost them as much as £310,800 last year. These numbers are not as significant as compared to the loss of big business owners but at the rate at which it jumped this year from 2014 is alarming. The total cost in the year 2014 was only £115,000 which nearly doubled just by the gap of one year.

Firms need to be prepared for more attacks than ever this year:

At the rate on which these cyber-attacks has increased in the last two years, it is expected that this year is going to have more attacks than ever. One of the reasons behind this drastic increase in the attacks is the startups and new businesses who are underestimating their IT security and more concern about establishing their businesses first. With every passing year, businesses which are entirely dependent on the computers and the internet are losing more instead of earning. These firms are not keeping up with every new security update. Conversely, the cyber criminals are equipping themselves with every latest technology and becoming more lethal with every passing year.

There is no doubt in it that these small businesses are the favorite targets of the cyber criminals. Moreover, these small businesses have also become a reason to worry for the big firms. Many big firms hire small companies as their vendors who do different work for them. The cyber criminals use this connection of big and small firms and breach the strong systems of big firms by using the small businesses. This is how these criminals are surrounding the businesses from all sides and the need for strong IT security has become the most important thing to sustain in the market for the businesses.

How to ensure the security:

Since cyber-security has become the major threat for businesses all over the world, companies have now started hiring the professionals to cope with it. However, small businesses who are still on their burning rate cannot get the services of the professionals to secure their businesses from such threats.

For the small business owners, I am listing down some of the cost effective ways through which they can secure their digital network to some extent.

• Ensure the security of your staff information like passwords and usernames.
• Arrange a proper training session and educate your staff about the precautions that they should take while using company’s devices.
• Keep your computers up to date and always use paid anti-virus and encryption software for maximum security.
• If you provide mobile devices to your staff then standardized them.
• Keep updating the security on employee’s devices.
• Change the passwords of your computers and every account that you use after every 60 days and ensure that the changed password is stronger than the previous ones.
• Do not allow everyone to have access to company’s sensitive documents. Only allow the access on a need to know basis.
• If you can’t hire them permanently, at least hire the cyber security professionals on the contract base for 2 to 3 months every year so they can assist your IT security.